Scarlett O’Hara and I are kindred souls in many ways. Oh,
not in her selfishness and vanity. (OK, maybe in the vanity part….. just a
little.) But, she was a stubborn, resourceful, and independent woman at a time
when none of that was admired in a lady. Yes, I realize that I’m talking about
a character in a book and subsequent movie, but still…….
She moved in society as easily as she faked her way into
jail to visit Rhett when she needed money to save her family and their
homestead. She whined, she cried, she slapped many faces (I counted how many
times in the movie rendition once, but have forgotten the number now), and she
haughtily uttered some very wise things.
Such as “Tomorrow is another day.” As I’ve aged to perfection, that one has been
the most valuable to me.
When we’re young, we tend to view everything that happens to
us as the stuff of our very own daytime drama. Life hums with the highs and
lows we all experience, and when we’re on a high, it’s a lot of fun. But when
those lows hit, we often fall into a valley of personal despair from which it’s
hard to see over the rock walls surrounding us. Some people are even so naive
to think that THEY won’t have any serious valleys in their lives….until they
do. It’s even worse, then, because it was unexpected for those folks. And
sometimes we fall into so many holes, deeper and deeper each time, that we give
up trying to climb out at all. We allow the darkness to envelope us and we
think that is going to be our lot in life forever.
A year or so ago, I was on top of the mountain. My life was on
the high end of the pendulum’s swing. I smiled a lot; I had an activity that
brought me such joy that I was literally dancing through life. I was working at
something I loved—writing—so my days seemed like a playground. Then the evil
genie who grabs the end of the pendulum and drags it to a stop showed up. I
fell off into the dirt, scraped my knees and ran home to lick my wounds.
I think the cliché is that things can change on a dime,
right? But I channeled Scarlett and we had a chat. “Fiddle-de-dee,” she said.
She reminded me that this little set-back wasn’t going to last forever. She was knocked down so low once that
she wore curtains for a gown to seduce Rhett. But she succeeded in her quest to
chase those Yankees off her land and have a real dress again. She realized
something that we all embrace as we age: tomorrow IS another day. And there
will be another one after that when a low may hit again, then the pendulum
swings back to happy days, if we just keep hanging on to it long enough to
shake that evil genie off into the mud.
The trick is to realize that when you’re young. When life
seems dismal, you have to know that things will get better…… because they
always do. If we all just listen to Scarlett admonish that “tomorrow is another
day,” and hang on long enough for the dawn.
I can't think about that right
now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.
Scarlett O’Hara/Gone With the
Wind
Need gift ideas for the holidays?
Visit Kobo Books to pick out one of Deborah's books:
Nothing to Complain About: My 125-Day Journey to Become Complaint Free
OR
Broken Strings: Wisdom for Divorced and Separated Families
Both are available as eBooks and Broken Strings is also available in print form.
SHOP NOW!
